Goodbye to Leonard Jefferson
by cartoonman412
Summary: The Fanfic story about the passing of Lynn Loud Sr.'s father, Rita's father in law and the Loud sibling's grandfather as welll


1 Tuesday morning in the spring time, Lincoln was about to head out the door to wait for the school bus, when the wireless telephone rang. Seeing that he was closest to the telephone, he answered it.

"Hello?" Lincoln spoke right into the telephone upon answering it.

"Why hello there, Lincoln, it's Is your Grandma Lila, is your father there?" Grandma Lila replied to him.

"No, Grandma Lila, Dad went out to open the Royal Woods Bowling Alley, and I'm about to leave for school, can I take a message, please?" Lincoln asked her while grabbing a pen right by the phone and pulling the pad of sticky notes near him so he could take down a message.

"Just tell your father that your Grandpa Leonard doesn't have much time left to live." Grandma Lila said to him.

Lincoln's heart sank in his chest, just as he stood there, not able to speak, his mouth was wide open and while he was only in 5th grade, he wasn't too peculiar with death and dying and he knew their Grandpa Leonard's time might come, but he wasn't expecting it real soon.

"Lincoln? are you still there?" Grandma Lila asked him right after it had gone silent for a couple of minutes on account of Lincoln's surprised reaction.

"Uh… Yeah… Grandma Lila…. I'm… Right… Here…" Lincoln stammered a bit while trying to hold back the tear drops.

"Did you get the message? about Grandpa Leonard?" Grandma Lila asked him again.

"Yes, Grandma Lila, I'll make sure to give Dad the message." Lincoln replied to her just as Rita (with Lily) and his 10 sisters walked right into the kitchen while Rita was carrying Lincoln's lunch bag.

"Well I gotta go to school, bye, Grandma Lila." Lincoln said to her while hanging up the wireless telephone and looking right up at Rita who stood right before him.

"Lincoln, who was that on the telephone with you?" Rita asked him.

"That was Grandma Lila, Mom, Grandpa Leonard's not doing too well and he may be on the verge of… of…I can't even say it." Lincoln stammered a bit while nearly prepared to break down again.

Rita put Lincoln's lunch bag down and put her right hand on Lincoln's right shoulder.

"I understand that Grandpa Leonard's real special to you and your sisters, I'll tell you what, I'll speak to your father, and right after school, we'll see to going and paying him a visit, but of course, both of our cars are in the shop, right after your father getting that flat tire yesterday, and mine having to go in for an oil change, so we'll need to take a taxi cab, but we'll see what we can do, now you and your 9 sisters need to be running along to school, the school buses will be here shortly." Rita said to him while handing Lincoln his lunch bag and walking right with her to the front door.

"Alright, Mom, thanks a bunch." Lincoln said to him while giving Rita a wrap around her right shoulder right before grabbing Lynn's right hand and walking towards the bus stop.

The bulk of that entire day at school was uneventful for Lincoln just as he found himself in a fog too worried about Grandpa Leonard to concentrate on anything at all. Then came lunch time and he sat right down at her usual table with Clyde, Zach, Ronnie Anne and Ian. Lincoln opened up his lunch bag, tore open the sandwich bag with his ham and cheese sandwich inside when he felt somebody tapping on his right shoulder. He turned right over to see that Ronnie Anne had sat right down with her warm lunch she got from the school cafeteria kitchen

"Lincoln, are you alright? you seem a bit distracted today." Ronnie Anne asked him due to a look of worriness on her face.

"No, Ronnie Anne, it's my Grandpa Leonard, he's in the hospital." Lincoln said to her while leaning right into Ronnie Anne's ear to whisper something to her.

"I think he might be…" Lincoln whispered to Ronnie Anne, but he couldn't bring herself to say the final word.

"Don't worry about it, Lincoln, he's in the hospital, right? I'm pretty sure he'll be just perfectly fine." Ronnie Anne whispered back to him while hoping to cheer her best friend for life and 1 true love up a bit.

While ordinarily, he'd take his best friend for life and 1 true love's word of advice, he knew deep down Grandpa Leonard didn't have too much time to live, but thinking about it only made him more upset. It was all he could do most of that day to keep the tear drops from coming to his eyes, not wishing to cry and weep in front of the other young kids in school. He had been nervous about crying and weeping in school ever since he was in kindergarten when he fell over on the playground and cried and wept 'cause he hurt his knee cap and while the kindergarten teacher came right over and helped him in to the school nurse's office, he couldn't help but notice the twin bullies in particular, laughing at him and calling him a cry baby. Embarrassed by this, he swore to never break down in tear drops in school again, and now, here he was, 3 years later, on the verge of wanting to cry and weep, but not wishing to face the embarrassment again on top of losing 1 of the few maternal grandparent figures that had always been there for him just as long as he could remember. He went back to eating his lunch meal while trying to put Grandpa Leonard outta his mind, not saying much to either Clyde, Zach, Ronnie Anne and Ian, who were talk about the latest Justice Pals movie they had all gone to see last Friday afternoon together as always at the movie theater and while Lincoln did enjoy the movie, he wasn't much in the mood to speak so only put his own input in if he was spoken to.

"Wasn't it amazing how the Justice Pals destroyed those evil giant Lizards, Lincoln?" Clyde asked him.

"Oh yeah, it was super thrilling." Lincoln replied to them in between sips of his mixed berry apple juice that he brought from home this morning.

The school bell rang and everybody went right outside where Lincoln sat on 1 of the benches right up by the school building and watched his good friends play basketball and just as it was all he could do to concentrate during the morning time, he found the exact same trouble arose that afternoon. He was just grateful to come right at the end of the entire day that he was never called on to answer a question. Chances were that he was so out of it, he would've got his answers wrong, something that hardly even happened, unless of course she was really nervous about an upcoming test or lost in thought over a major event like it was today with Grandpa Leonard being on the verge of dying.

Right before he knew it, the school bell rang again and he got right on the school bus where he took a seat right by the window and looked right out the window all the way home and not speaking with anybody at all. No sooner had he arrived home when a big yellow taxi cab was sitting right in the Loud family's driveway. He was curious enough to see what was going on around here.

"Come on, Lincoln, let's go." Rita called to him from inside the taxi cab.

"Okay, Mom, I'm coming with you." Lincoln called back to her while approaching the back door of the taxi cab and opening it.

"Where are we going?" Lincoln asked her while climbing right into the cab with his 9 sisters and closing the door right behind him.

"We're picking up your father from the Royal Woods Bowling Alley and heading right up to Royal Woods hospital where Grandpa Leonard is being stationed, I received another telephone call from your Grandma Lila today and he doesn't have much time left to live, it'll be good if he's still alive when we get there, neither 1 of our cars were ready to be picked up at the mechanic's so your father and I agreed to take a taxi cab up there so you guys could see Grandpa Leonard and tell him goodbye." Rita explained to them as the taxi cab driver pulled right outta their driveway and headed right in the direction of the Royal Woods Bowling Alley.

Luckily when they arrived, Lynn Loud Sr. was waiting right out front at which point, Rita moved to the back seat and let Lynn Loud Sr. ride in front ever since he suffered from motion sickness if he rode in the back seat.

"Thanks a bunch for watching over things while I'm gone out, you guys." Lynn Loud Sr. called to them from the taxi cab while waving to 1 of his co-workers who was in the doorway.

"No problem, Lyndon, good luck with everything." Co-Worker Number 1 called to him as Lynn Loud Sr. closed his door, buckled his seatbelt and very soon, they were on their way to Royal Woods Hospital.

It was a super long drive just as Grandpa Leonard lived an hour away and Grandpa Leonard was stationed at the hospital in their home town, but the drive felt especially long enough to Lincoln this time. To pass the time, he decided to work on a little bit of homework he had that evening which was going over his spelling words for the entire week and finishing up some math problems on a worksheet that he began in Agnes Johnson's class, but he didn't have enough time to finish and Agnes told him to finish the problems at home, but just as he had trouble concentrating in school, not to mention the bumpiness of the taxi cab made it difficult to write, it was nearly impossible to do his math homework so he handed the sheet of spelling words to Rita and had him call out D words to her.

"Lincoln, spell the word, daring." Kira read aloud.

"Uh… D-A-R-I-N-G." Lincoln replied to himself a bit unsure if he was getting it right or not.

"That's right, now spell the word, dimples." Rita read aloud.

"Uh… Um…D-I-M-P-L-E-S?" Lincoln asked her once again unsure.

"Good save there, Lincoln." Rita said to him.

They continued on right through the rest of the spelling words which were all words that began with the letter D for that week and while Lincoln got them correct, he wasn't having any difficulty. However, they arrived at Royal Woods hospital.

"We're here." The taxi cab driver said to them.

"Thanks a bunch, kind sir." Lynn Loud Sr. said to him while paying him the cab fare and the Loud family members piled right outta the taxi cab right on to the curb near the hospital entrance.

Lincoln gulped nervously upon getting outta the taxi cab 'cause being near hospitals made him a bit nervous.

"What's the matter with you, Lincoln?" Lynn asked him while noticing their brother looking nervous.

"It's just that I don't like hospitals that much, Lynn." Lincoln replied to her while leaning in close to Rita and Lynn Loud Sr. for support.

"Don't worry about it, Lincoln, we'll be right with you, and I'm pretty sure a warm smiling face from Grandpa Leonard will cheer you up a bit, it always does." Lori said to him.

But Lincoln wasn't only a similar spirited person to Clyde in times like this, always looking on the good side of things, even at age 11, he didn't have quite the exact same concept of death that Lola had while seeing their Uncle Harvey still alive and just as far as he knew, they had never lost anybody important to them before, but however, he didn't wanna possibly begin an argument with his 10 sisters so he remained silent just as the entire family walked right into the hospital and went right up to the receptionist's desk to find out where Grandpa Leonard's hospital room was.

"We're here to pay Grandpa Leonard a visit." Rita said to the receptionist who was sitting right behind the desk.

The receptionist typed some things on the computer screen then she turned her attention back to Rita.

"He's upstairs in room 412, take the elevator to the 5th floor, it'll be the 3rd room on your right down the hallway." The receptionist said to them while pointing in the direction of the elevators.

"Thanks a bunch, ma'am." Rita said to him.

The Loud family members got on the next elevator and went right up to Grandpa Leonard's hospital room and when they got there, they saw Grandma Lila hunched right over the hospital bed where Lynn Loud Sr.' s father was lying in tear drops. She was terribly upset that she didn't even hear the entire family come in here.

"Mom? Dad? we're here." Lynn Loud Sr. said to them while coming right up behind his mother who turned around startled by his presence.

"Lyndon, this isn't easy for me to tell you, but your father's gone for good." Grandma Lila whispered to him while putting her face on Lynn Loud Sr.'s right shoulder.

Sure enough, Lincoln, Lori, Lola, Lana, Lucy, Lynn, Luan, Luna, Lily and Rita all looked at the hospital bed where Grandpa Leonard was lying, and sure enough, he had passed away peacefully, and at this point, Lincoln who was a bit freaked out by seeing their deceased grandfather right before him, ran right outta the hospital room screaming and crying at the exact same time.

"Lincoln, come back, wait!" Rita called out to him while stumbling right outta the hospital room and running right down the hallway to catch up with her 11 year old son who had run face 1st into a cart that had ice cold water on it to be delivered to other patients in the building.

Unfortunately, Rita wasn't fast enough and Lincoln went face 1st into the cart which ran right down the hallway 'til it hit the wall at the end, toppling over above her and splashing ice cold water everywhere.

"Lincoln, are you alright?" Rita asked him when she approached her 6th born son who was now lying right on the ground soaking wet and a cart nearly on top of him.

A nurse came by at that minute and saw what had happened.

"What's going on?" The nurse asked her.

"Oh thank goodness somebody's here, my 6th born son, a bit freaked out over the passing of their own grandfather, ran right out into the hallway and had a bit of an accident here." Rita replied to her.

"Well let's get your son checked out then." The nurse said to her while getting the cart outta Lincoln's way and checking to see if he was still responsive.

He was, even though he was quite sore, but when he was on his feet, they headed right down to an examining room where he was checked out, but nothing was broken, just a few scrapes and bruises which the nurse practitioner treated. When that was finished, Rita and Lincoln went and caught up with the other Loud family members who was seeing to making the funeral arrangements for Grandpa Leonard 's memories.

"What just happened to Lincoln, Rita?" Lynn Loud Sr. asked her upon seeing their 6th born son covered in bandages.

Rita went on to explain to him what had happened just as they headed right outside to catch their taxi cab back home to their house.

On the ride home, they had a good mourn over the loss and departure of Grandpa Leonard and the taxi cab driver who was a young woman this time, began feeling terribly sorry for the Loud family's depression and sorrow. When they got back home, Rita opened up cans of chicken noodle soup for their dinner meal, but nobody was in the mood to eat much of anything, especially not Lincoln.

"It's just not fair, 1st Great Uncle Stuart left me, then my Grandma Roberta, then my pet goldfish, Billy and now Grandpa Jack, why did he need to pass away?" Lincoln cried a bit at the dinner table.

"We still have our other relatives, Lincoln." Luna said to him.

Lincoln stared at 1 of his older sisters.

"We know that, Luna." Lincoln snapped at her.

"Lincoln, no more snapping at your sisters." Rita said to him.

"Sorry 'bout that, Mom and Dad." Lincoln muttered to himself while taking another bite of his chicken noodle soup.

"And just like your Great Uncle Stuart and your Grandma Roberta, my father's now in the skies of heaven watching down on all of us, but I agree with you, Lincoln, why did he need to go so soon?" Lynn Loud Sr. asked him while breaking down in tear drops.

"Can I be excused?" Lincoln asked them.

Rita nodded her head just as her mouth was full so he got right up from the dining room table and headed right off to his bedroom where he sat for a bit on his bed and looked right through old photographs of Lincoln, the Loud sisters and Grandpa Leonard. The 1st photograph she opened up to in the book was taken not too long ago right before Lily was born. Grandpa Leonard had come to visit and he saw a photograph of Lynn Loud Sr. making a banana cream pie with him. It had been good 8 years ever since that ordeal happened and being upset by the fact that he was spending more time with his sisters than he was with her. he turned over to another photograph where he, the Loud sisters and Grandpa Leonard were playing together as always in the backyard the following day, then he flipped back a few pages to photographs taken of her when he and the Loud sisters were visiting Grandpa Leonard. There was 1 taken of Lincoln at age 5 and a half sitting on Grandpa Leonard's lap and looking at 1 of his fairy tale books

He looked at more photographs while looking at all of the photographs taken of him playing with the green army figurines Grandpa Leonard had given him every single year and he pulled out the last couple of years of Christmas cards Grandpa Leonard had sent him, but tragically, no Christmas card came last year 'cause of the terrible health state he was in, but just as Lincoln looked at Grandpa Leonard's handwriting on the cards, he couldn't stop thinking about how he never even got to tell him goodbye 'cause he was already deceased when they arrived at Royal Woods hospital. By this point, Lincoln lost it again, silently breaking down in tear drops just as he snuggled up with his plush toy rabbit and put his face right into his pillow while crying himself to sleep and never even getting undressed for bed or remembering to take his fruit flavored vitamins which was something he hadn't forgotten ever or at least just as far as he could remember.

The very next day, while Lincoln stayed home from school and Rita went to the Royal Woods Bowling Alley, Lynn Loud Sr. and the Loud sisters stayed at home with him not sure what to do around here. They spent their entire day speaking about Grandpa Leonard and looking at old photographs while mourning, not able to contain themselves, that afternoon, Grandma Lila called while letting Lynn Loud Sr. know when the funeral service would be and asking if he wanted an open or closed casket service at the wake.

"Mom, I don't know if I want it open or not." Lynn Loud Sr. replied to Grandma Lila on the wireless telephone just as Lincoln walked right into the upstairs washroom to get himself some ice-cold water.

"I sure hope I don't need to see Grandpa Leonard's deceased body again, that was very disturbing." Lincoln said to herself while filling up a cup of ice-cold water from the washroom faucet.

"Closed casket, please." Lynn Loud Sr. said to Grandma Lila on the wireless telephone while hearing Lincoln's comment.

The following day, which was a Friday, Lincoln did go back to school, even though he would've preferred to stay at home, he was gonna need to miss half a day today to go to the funeral service at the funeral home followed by the funeral service the next day, meaning they'd be staying at Grandma Lila's house overnight so Rita and Lynn Loud Sr. wanted him to go to school on that day.

"How's your grandfather, Lincoln?" Clyde asked him while seeing Lincoln step right up on the school bus.

He took a seat right next to him and once again, trying to hold back the tear drops. He leaned in to Clyde's right ear.

"He passed away right before we even made it to visit him in the hospital." Lincoln whispered to Clyde.

"Oh wow, Lincoln, I'm terribly sorry to hear that." Clyde said to him.

"Thanks a bunch, Clyde." Lincoln replied back to him.

By the time they got to school, the rest of the entire gang knew about Grandpa Leonard's passing and were all feeling terribly sorry for Lincoln and the bulk of the entire day was uneventful, even though Rita had sent in a note with Lincoln to give to Agnes about having to leave early on Friday afternoon and asking if he could take his spelling test in the morning time ever since she usually gave them right after lunch and recess, she agreed to let Lincoln take the test the following Monday morning and seeing that she knew what he must be going through, giving him the weekend to study, but even Ronnie Anne was feeling terribly sorry for him.

"You don't need to do that, Ronnie Anne." Lincoln said to his best friend for life and 1 true love.

"I know, Lincoln, but you need to heal, I lost my Great Aunt Janet last year, so I know how it really feels, you just hang in there, they'll get better in the nick of time." Ronnie Anne replied to him just as the 5th grade students were coming back from gym class which Lincoln skipped on account of he was still feeling sore in a few places from his accident in Royal Woods Hospital from a couple of days ago.

The rest of the day and Friday afternoon were uneventful, just as Lincoln more or less went through the motions of going to school, preparing himself for the upcoming days ahead. During lunch time, Rita and Lynn Loud Sr. both had their cars back, but Lynn Loud Sr. didn't feel much like driving so Rita came to pick up Lincoln, Lola, Lana, Lisa and Lucy, signing them out for the afternoon and right before they knew it, they were heading right up to the funeral home an hour away from them. Lincoln had problems falling asleep the night before, so he caught himself a relaxing nap in the car on the way up there. Right after they arrived, they went right into the funeral home which was decorated in beautiful pink and white flower plants and the golden casket was closed with a photograph of Grandpa Leonard sitting right on top that was near the alter. While Lincoln didn't really wish to see a photograph of Grandpa Leonard, especially since this was 1 of the more recent pictures when he began getting really ill, all he could think about was…

"At least I don't need to look at his deceased body again." Lincoln thought to himself while kneeling down at the alter to say some praises.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with lines of Royal Woods residents who knew Grandpa Leonard coming right up through the line and giving Lincoln and the rest of the Loud family members their condolences and showing their respects and saying how sorry they were for their loss and departure. Lincoln, wearing a black outfit which he changed into upon arriving at the funeral home, politely hugged them back and told them thanks a bunch, even though deep down, he'd much prefer to have been left alone.

If that wasn't enough, it was even harder to face Grandma Lila's house where they were staying that evening then they had the funeral service the next day.

"Did you sleep okay, Lincoln?" Rita asked him.

Lincoln nodded his head.

"Well we'd better get a move on, they want us at the church building at 9 AM." Grandma Lila said to them while standing up from the breakfast table and heading upstairs to prepare themselves.

They all finished their breakfast meals and went to get themselves prepared. Lincoln put back on the black outfit he wore the day before, if for no other reason, he didn't bring anything to wear. Right before they knew it, they were at the church and the funeral service shortly began afterwards. They performed several of Grandpa Leonard's favorite hymns and Lynn Loud Sr. and Grandma Lila spoke about Lynn Loud Sr.'s late father. Lincoln also learned that the church where Grandpa Leonard's funeral service was at was also the same church where their oldest cousin got married that 1 year. Then they went to the Royal Woods Cemetery where Grandpa Leonard was put down to rest in heavenly peace.

"Goodbye, Grandpa Jack, I'll never forget about you." Lincoln said to himself while looking right up towards the skies of heaven where he believes she saw Grandpa Leonard's face in the clouds. Right after the funeral service, they went to 1 of Grandpa Leonard's most favorite restaurants for their lunch meals followed by a trip to the convenient store where Lincoln picked up the latest Justice Pals comic magazine with that week's allowance and Lynn Loud Sr. picked up a copy of the newspaper to have a copy of his mother's obituary. Afterwards, they packed up the car and headed for home where Lincoln read his new comic magazine on the way there.

Reading the comic magazine cheered him up a bit and Lynn commented how it was the 1st time she had seen her younger brother smiling in a few days. It was living proof that it would take a great deal of time to fully come to terms with Grandpa Leonard's passing, he was on the road to recovery, but right before he could really begin the healing process, there was 1 final thing he went home and did. Later that Saturday afternoon, he got together a little box and placed inside the 1st set of little green army figurines he gave him as a young 6 year old boy. Along with those photos of their past years, he also put in there, the Christmas cards he sent her over the years, and on the very top of the stack, he cut out the obituary from the newspaper and laid it right on top. When everything was inside, he closed the box and placed it on the shelf in his closet.

"Goodbye, Grandpa Leonard, you'll always be in our hearts and minds." Lincoln said to himself while waving to the box and closing his closet door.

He went right downstairs to the living room where he found his sisters along with Rita and Lynn Loud Sr. watching The Adventures of the Justice Pals on television. He took a seat right next to them on the sofa. When a television commercial came on, Lincoln looked over to see Lynn sitting right next to him and smiling at him as well.

"Are You feeling any better, Lincoln?" Lynn asked him.

"Yeah, Lynn, Dad's are absolutely right, Grandpa Leonard's up in the skies of heaven watching over us just like Great Uncle Stuart and Grandma Roberta are." Lincoln said to her.

"I'm so relieved you're feeling so much better right now, Lincoln." Luna said to him.

"So am I, I'll always miss her more than anything, but I'll never forget her and besides the mom, dad, youngest sister and dog we've got now, she was the closest thing we've had for quite a while." D.W. said to him.

"But Mom and Dad are still with all of us and they really love us more than anything." Luan said to him just as Rita and Lynn Loud Sr. walked right into the room.

"We sure do." Rita said to them while she, Lynn Loud Sr. and the Loud siblings were sitting right on the sofa with them.

And from that day forth, while there were minutes where Lincoln and his 10 sisters missed their Grandpa Leonard, in time, Lincoln got over the loss and departure, looking back on the memories of their Grandpa Leonard, with smiling faces.


End file.
